The best hope now, Sheets said, is that an employee's distant cousin's wife can do the job.

Sheets also reported one of the transit vehicles collided with a semi truck recently at St. Clair St. and Mount Vernon Road. There were no injuries, but it's another vehicle out of service. The transit vehicles travel about 5,000 to 6,000 miles a month.

"We're wearing out vehicles constantly," Republican Commissioner Rick Black said in a recent Advocate editorial discussion with Democrat Adam Rhodes, his opponent in the Nov. 6 general election. "A year ago, 11 new ones, and soon, 11 more new ones."

Black said transportation provider MV Transportation has not been the savior they hoped for when MV replaced National Express at the beginning of the year.

"I can safely say we're not going to re-up with MV," Black said. "(Eventually), we'll do it ourselves, but we're not prepared to do it today. There are conversations happening in-house. We're not getting the service from MV we should be. We were expecting better service than we are getting. We were promised better service."

Rhodes said there should not be a private company providing the service.

"They outsourced a critical government function to a private entity making a profit," Rhodes said.

"They have had success because their transit drivers are county employees, and they don't need to renegotiate a contract," Rhodes said. "We're kind of hampered by this private entity. You could have brought it back in house and saved money."

Black said MV Transportation will soon have a permanent manager. At least that's the hope. It will be the fifth one this year.

Six years ago, just prior to the merger of Earthworks Transit, which served Newark and Heath, and Licking County Transit, a study recommended fixed-route bus service be established in the county.

"We've had all kinds of studies, but they never involve the transit department in asking the right question," Black said. "Several things we need to know aren't here. There's tremendous possibilities for transit, but it's going to take money."

Black said the county will soon submit a Request For Proposals for a transportation development plan looking five years into the future for countywide transportation needs.

"We could do a lot more, but one of the biggest problems is finding drivers and finding dispatchers," Black said. "We're not ready to have a big public discussion on this. We have a lot of research to do."